A HOPEFUL SOUL IN A CHAOTIC WORLD

If there is one word that best describes the world today, it is chaotic. There are a lot of challenges that the world faces that induce this chaos, and among these, moral confusion seems to be the most dominant.  Moral confusion is most evident in the increasing disorderliness on what the society considers to be good or bad, morally acceptable or not. Just take for example the Philippine controversy concerning the Reproductive Health Bill. Using natural method over artificial contraceptives is still a much-heated debate up to now, especially in this conservative Christian nation. 

So why is the world in its present condition today, in a state of chaos and of moral dilemma, despite the fact that God created the world to be good? First of all, the statement “God created the world to be good” needs to be clarified. God, in His image and likeness, created human beings, who ruled over the other creatures of the Earth. Since God is the Ultimate Good, and he made man in His image and likeness, human has the unlimited capacity and responsibility to be good. Human has the capacity to be good for as he strive for his highest being or true self, he becomes closer to God, who is the Ultimate Good. And human has the responsibility to be good for it is a vocation, a calling from God. We are all called to be like Jesus of Nazareth, and to be able to do that, we must believe his beliefs and do his deeds; that is, having faith in the power of goodness and spreading out the goodness virus.  

However, it is in the very nature of human that he or she is imperfect and incomplete, subjected to various weaknesses and defects, making him or her vulnerable to temptation and sin. And human having the gift of free will can opt to resist the temptation or give in. He can choose to move towards or against goodness; and thus he can violate the very nature of him being good.

This turning back from God, the Ultimate Good, alienates human from himself, from others, and from God. His heart, stained with sin, is what makes him in himself chaotic. Morally confused, he was blind on what values to follow, what movements to make, and what goodness to believe. And since human in himself is chaotic, the world he dwells in is also chaotic. The process is reversible; that is, humanity reflects the world and the world reflects humanity.  

And as a human living in this world, I also experience that chaos of morality. I am no stranger to insecurity, indifference, pain and hatred that is brought upon by this seemingly endless chaos. But I am also no foreign to acceptance, sympathy, happiness and love that counteract its dominion. I live as an individual but I am no completely different from humanity. I also own a chaotic heart, which further contribute to this chaotic world. I sin every day of my life, consciously or unconsciously, even after undergoing the intense reflection of what is morally good or bad. Once in a while I find myself doubting the existence of a good in this world, where the prominent social realities are poverty, corruption, and marginalization among many others. Most often I need to re-examine myself if I still hold on to the good, and if I’m still willing to fight for it. And worse, I find myself alone in my faith for most of my ideas contradict with the Roman Catholic Church, which I perceive to be so conservative with its teachings and beliefs. But despite all these, just like the humanity, I still possess a hopeful spirit which keeps my faith alive amidst disorder and confusion. This is perhaps why, regardless of the chaos and moral dilemma, the light of hope of humanity never dies.

So what is my greatest challenge today? That is to keep the light of hope shining to help bring order to the chaos. And this can be done by recognizing, accepting and executing my vocation of love and goodness despite the temptation to indulge myself in worldly goods and personal desires. 

ALL ABOUT LOVE

You certainly have heard it in so many songs, read it in so many books, and watched it in so many movies, but you still can’t grasp the full meaning of it. You have witnessed it in so many places on different occasions from quite a number of people yet you still can’t find the right words for it. That’s just how mysterious love is. In fact, it is present in our everyday lives from the little favors that our friends do for us to the considerable sacrifices that our parents bear for us. Sometimes it appears as something sweet like a surprise birthday party, but oftentimes, as something simple like a cup of coffee. That is not all; love may exist in everything that we do.

One could write a book about love yet it would still be insufficient to truly understand its mysterious nature. But inadequate doesn’t mean unimportant, for the attempt will be able to give us a deeper comprehension of love. So from here on, I will briefly discuss two reasons why love is a mystery; that is, by exploring its paradoxical nature and its ultimate source.

First is the paradoxical nature of love. And to illustrate this, we will be using a slightly confusing idea that “Love is blind and not blind”. Most of us must have heard the saying, “Love is blind for it sees but is doesn’t mind”. Certainly, one must be blind to love. And what aspects do that person must be blind of? It is, first and foremost, physical appearance. When we love, we tend to be blind of every detail of that person’s looks. Just take for example, our love for our parents. No matter what, they look beautiful in our eyes despite the scars, rashes, or whatever flaw they have. But despite being blind, love is at the same time not blind. Why is this so? Because love not only open our eyes but also our hearts to look through the person we love. That is, we were able to see the “real person” masked by that body. Also, love is not blind for we are concerned with the person’s spiritual growth. We do not cover up our beloved’s mistakes, faults and sins; in fact, we may choose to scold them, and thus ending up hurting them, just to teach them what’s right and wrong. With these, we can say that one must not be blind to love, which is contradictory with our previous statement above. Yet this paradoxical nature of love is only seemingly, for the being blind and not blind of love really depends on the situation that they can be best applied to.

The second reason why love has a mysterious nature is because its ultimate source is also a mystery. And when we talk of its ultimate source, we talk about God. It is because of the overflowing love of God that He created and sustains us along with His other creations. We can even say that God Himself is love. And God is mysterious in such a way that our limited mind cannot grasp His fullness and magnificence. We can’t see Him, and can only experience Him through revelation. And just like our experience with love, each of us has a unique experience with God, leading to different knowledge and descriptions of Him.

If love is a mystery, why is it then the most essential human experience? In other words, what is it with love, despite its being unknowable, that makes it the most essential human experience? There are three things – love lets us discover what we can do, what we should do, and what we can hope for. Love lets us discover what we can do for it helps us know our highest potentials. It makes us realize how far we are willing to go for love, and it helps us identify our strengths and weaknesses. Love lets us discover what we should do by bringing out the goodness in us. When someone loves us, he or she helps us transform into a better person by showing us that there is some good that exists in this world. Consciously or unconsciously, when we learn to love too, we pass the same goodness that was shown to us to our beloved. And by being close to goodness, we learn to differentiate what’s right from wrong, and thus, differentiate what we should do from what we shouldn’t do. Lastly, love lets us discover what we can hope for. Lucky are those who live their lives full of love for there is some kind of driving force that wakes them up every morning and gets them going until evening. And every time that they stumble down, there is a support system that helps them stand up. Love makes us confident in ourselves, despite our imperfections, and enthusiastic about the future, despite some obstacles.

Certainly, love has such a mysterious nature. It makes us happy, it makes us sad, and it makes us love again. And when we talk of love, most of us might think of romantic love. Being in a romantic relationship is one of the most defining moments in our lives, anyway. And speaking of romantic relationship, perhaps the most unforgettable would be our first love since it was the first time that we became so vulnerable to someone other than our family and friends. I can still remember mine, and just like any other first love stories, it didn’t end up well. When I was in third year high school, I met this guy who is very likeable. We didn’t go by the usual stage of courting or dating, we immediately jumped into the relationship without thinking of the possible consequences. And just like any other young couples at that age, we once believed that we were made for each other. I even thought, “Finally, God has started to write my love story”. We were so coupled that we would call each other until dawn and we would text each other every minute. For quite some time, I really thought that it would last forever. But nothing really lasts forever, so the “honeymoon stage” inevitably died after a year. We started cursing and accusing each other until we finally broke apart. Though I really hated him after that, it was hard for me to let go. Not because I still love him, but because I miss the thought of loving and being loved. It took me one year to let go and to forgive. Luckily, I have my family and friends who helped me realize that it’s not the end of the world yet, and that I must move on. It was just a phase that high school students need to go through. For some time, I really thought that I would never learn to love again. But I guess I’m just so stubborn to be stopped from loving. 

THE BIRTH OF SOCIOLOGY

There are six major changes in Europe that led to the emergence of sociology as a field of study. These six changes are the Enlightenment Period and the Growth of Science, the Religious Change, the Industrial Revolution, the Rise of Capitalism, the Growth of Cities, and the Rise of Socialism. The first four factors can be explained by using structural-functional paradigm while the last two factors can be explained by using social-conflict paradigm. Although these six factors contributed to the birth of sociology, I would like to emphasize only three of those that I believe has the greatest impact to Europe’s societal change. 

THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

During the Middle Ages in Europe, people’s livelihood depends largely on manpower. People till soil near their homes, and set up small-scale businesses through manufacturing. During those times, human body was used as a source of energy to produce goods and services.

By the end of 18^th century, a major development happened. Since science continues to grow and technology continues to advance, manpower was replaced by machines. Machines can produce goods in a faster rate with a lower cost (since there is no need to pay for human labor), thereby weakening the need for manpower. Since the products produced by machines were cheaper than the products produced by manpower, people would patronize more the products that were produced by the machines. Thus, more profit was gained in the factory than in farms and small-scale businesses. Because of this, factories were built across Europe, leading to the rise of a factory-based industrial economy.

As more factories were built, more raw materials were needed and the use of manpower shifted from manufacturing and tilling soil to working in factories. Since there were more raw materials needed, the landowners demanded more lands, and turned farms into grazing land for sheep. Since more sheep are owned, more wool was produced which are sold to factories, which provided more income to the landowners. Since there was a scarcity of land for tenant farmers, they migrated to places where there were factories, hoping to find jobs with more satisfying income. This migration caused families to separate, and traditions that guided the society for centuries to weaken. 

THE GROWTH OF CITIES

The migration of people to places where the industry was fast progressing led to the growth of cities. The number of cities grew to unprecedented size, increasing the social problems that the new urban dwellers face. The increase in population caused the increase in pollution, crime and homelessness. 

THE RISE OF SOCIALISM

During the Middle Ages, people considered society as something supernatural. The rulers were given “divine rights” by gods, and are considered to be holy. But during the 18^th and 19^th centuries, this view had changed. The industrial revolution and the growth of cities brought political ideas, which led to the downfall of the religious view of society. Unlike before, people now view society as a natural phenomenon, which means that society doesn’t only reflect the perfection of gods, but the imperfection of humans as well. This sudden shift in the societal view caused people to pursue their own interests, and speak of individual rights and liberty. This new consciousness to surroundings led to the French Revolution, which in effect regenerated the human race with new political and social tradition. People realized that they have “certain unalienable rights” including “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”.

Those three major changes led to a new awareness of society, which triggered people to understand how society actually operates, and how society could be improved, thus leading to the birth of sociology as a field of study.

NELL: HUMAN DEVELOPMENT AND SOCIALIZATION

Personality is the unique way in which a person thinks, acts, and feels throughout his life. It can be developed through the person’s geographic and physical environment (nature), through the person’s social and cultural environment (nurture), or through the interaction of the two (nurture and nature).

Proponents of the nature theory of human development suggest that personality is innate, meaning it is already engrained in a person even before he was born. Also, it is the geographic and physical environment of a person which affects his personality. His natural environment helps him develop traits which will enable him to adapt to his surroundings. The process of adaptation develops specific genes in the human cell which encode these traits. This evolution is a result of natural selection for the so called survival of the fittest. These specific genes are then passed from one generation to another through reproduction.

Proponents of the nurture theory of human development suggest that personality is not innate, and that it is developed over time as a result of a person’s unique personal experiences. Also, it is the social and cultural environment of a person which affects his personality. This implies that a person’s mind is a blank slate at his birth. It also means that traits originate only from the environmental factors of our upbringing such as parenting styles, economic factors, education, and anything that can be learned and does not come from within.

The nature vs. nurture debate still goes on until now, and this debate was evident in the movie entitled “Nell”. Nell is a young lady who lived in an isolated cabin located in a deep forest. She had a mother who had been responsible for her upbringing until she (Nell’s mother) became paralyzed on one side. When Nell’s mother died, she met Dr. Jerry and Dr. Paula, who represent the nature and nature side of human development. The two doctors observed and interacted with Nell for three long months to settle the issue of whether to put her in a hospital where she would be taught to interact with the social world, or not.

Dr. Jerry represents the nature side of human development. For him, Nell’s traits are mainly contributed by her geographic and physical environment, not her social and cultural ones. Because of this, Nell cannot be considered as a wild child. (A wild child is a person who lacks basic social skills which are learned through enculturation, and is a person who has lived isolated from human interaction from a very young age, and has little experience of human care, loving, social behavior and human language.)  For him, Nell doesn’t lack human interaction for she is able to dress, comb her hair, prepare her own food, walk upright, chop woods, and understand the Bible. Also, he observed that Nell has a strong connection with nature, which results from her growing up in the woods. She enjoys swimming in the river, swinging with the wind and dancing with the trees. When Nell first saw him, she screamed and fought, but then she gradually adjusted as he visits her in the cabin more often. Lastly, Jerry observed that Nell’s language is something that is ‘private’, one that is not as common as the English language. Some of these words are missa, erna, and tata. Missa means small, erna means big, and tata means fear. Nell’s aggressive and ritualistic behaviors and language were interpreted by Jerry as something natural-something that results from adaptation with her physical and natural environment, and not something that results from lack of socialization. Being with the nature side of human development, he wants Nell to remain in her isolated cabin. He believes that Nell doesn’t need to be taught how to socialize with other people because she has her own way of doing that. Also, for him, Nell’s separation with her physical environment would give her no help; instead it will cause her death.

Dr. Paula represents the nurture side of human development. For her, Nell’s traits are mainly contributed by her social and cultural environment, not her geographic and physical ones. Because of this, she considers Nell as a wild child. For her, Nell lacks human interaction for she is unable to speak the English language clearly, react normally whenever she sees people, and show interest in the human activity around her. Also, she observed that Nell has ritualistic routines such as facing the mirror, performing strange actions, and saying words which cannot be easily understood. Lastly, Paula observed that Nell’s language is something that resembles the English language, but has some oddities. For her, Nell’s oddity in speech was caused by her mother’s stroke-impaired speech. Some of these words are guy ange, J, and taye n na winn. Guy ange means guardian angel, J means Jerry, and taye n na winn means tree in the wind. Nell’s aggressive and ritualistic behaviors and language were interpreted by Paula as something learned-something that results from family interaction and lack of exposure to other human activities, and not something that is innate or comes from within. Being with the nurture side of human development, she wants Nell to stay in a hospital, where she will receive a close care throughout her life to become a normal member of the society. She believes that Nell cannot survive on her own, and she needs to be taught how to socialize with other people if ever she’s going to leave her cabin.

For me, Nell’s traits were contributed by the interaction of both nature and nurture. Nature played a great part in her life especially when she was still young. It was shown in the film especially when she was reminiscing the moments in the past when her twin sister, May, was still alive. They perform a ‘ritual’ called “Chickabee” before swimming in the river. The ritual goes on like this:

“Chicka, chicka, chickabee

T’ee an me an t’ee an me.

Ressa, ressa, ressa me

Chicka, chicka, chickabee.”

As can be observed from the ‘ritual’ above, the words were far off from the English language. Nell and May’s language can be considered to be a twin language, an ‘immature’ language that is spoken only by a very few people, especially twins. According to studies, twin language is caused by a delayed development of language. It occurs mostly with twins rather than singletons, because they are frequently premature and underweight at birth. In such a case, nature is dominant because the language is not caused by the lack of interaction or socialization with other people but by the biochemical processes which occurs inside the human body, such as maturation. Maturation is the biological and physiological process of development, which allows a person’s bodily organs to perform certain tasks, such as language acquisition.  

Nurture also played a great part in Nell’s life especially when she met Jerry and Paula in the woods. It was shown in the film especially when Nell started to learn the English language. When Nell was having conversation with Jerry, she said, “Lees’ Nell, Ma say, afa I done go, guy ange com”.  (Listen Nell, my mother said, after I have gone, a guardian angel will come). Even though there were oddities in the language above, it was evident that the words closely resemble the English language. In such a case, nurture is dominant because Nell learned the English language through her interaction or socialization with Jerry and Paula.